Saria
=Appearance= Tall, brunette and dark-skinned, Saria was often mistaken for a Stygian since she is in the employ of Lady Imari at the Serpent's Head Inn. She was in fact Aquilonian by birth but would tell you that she has never been outside the city of Khemi where she worked and lived. Saria was found usually dressed in her blue rough-spun cotton dress which is the uniform of the serving ladies at the Serpent's Inn. There were a few readily identifiable traits by which you could be sure you were talking to Saria. When faced with an indecent proposal or view, she would often flush red, showing her true Aquilonian birth by the redness in her cheeks. She tended to bite her bottom lip when faced with an uneasy situation or prospect. She sometimes would fiddle with the large medallion on her chest nervously. All was not as it appeared however as many other people outside of the Serpent's Head Inn knew "Saria" as "Alis". The mercenary sellsword who was under the employ of a mysterious mistress. Alis was gruff and bawdy making coarse jokes and betting on fights. Alis wore a dark oiled set of boiled leather armor, with no cape or helmet. In appearance, she appeared the same as Saria but in personality she was the polar opposite. =Personality= Saria was a timid creature by nature, you would not notice her if not for her coming up on you at the Serpent's Head. Drawn weapons, assassins out of hiding and strong personalities tended to make her "Yipe!" in terror. She tended to be a hopeless romantic however, finding boldness in manner and speech when the prospect of setting someone up, or seeing/imagining some romantic reason in a situation. Saria had been known to attempt to set up patrons against their will and also to impute romantic intentions even when none existed. Of her own status, Saria had a low opinion of herself, hastening to raise up the lords and ladies who mistakenly bowed to her. She was, in her own words, "but a lowly barmaid" and not worthy of the interests of the patrons of the Serpent's Head. Saria was also very fearful of her mysterious overlord who she only refers to as Mistress. When confronted by a situation she feels that her mistress would disapprove of, she tended to look around the Serpent's Head in fear, as if anticipating mistress's imminent entry, or suspecting the nearest patron of being a spy. Her great dream was to one day see Tarantia, capitol of her birth nation of Aquilonia - having heard many a tale of its gleaming white walls and gold-capped domes. Ironically, Alis, her split personality lived in Tarantia above the King's Smith. Alis was a coarse rough-hewn woman quick with the tongue and quicker with the blade. She performed many tasks for her mysterious Mistress who she feared and yet served diligently. She had the personality of a mercenary but curiously had only one master (mistress). Alis tended to file her finger nails with her two handed sword which took quite a bit of skill and was quite a stupid thing to do. Before going on a mission she would always perform a small ritual, tapping the medallion on her chest and rearranging her sword belt. She tended to be arrogant and snippy, always with a quick comeback or witty (she thought) repartee. =History= Alisaria was an adventurer in Hyborea who stumbled across a demonic tomb in the wild Barachan Islands. Eager for treasure she broke an ancient seal and took a gilt medallion from it's ancient resting place. The medallion was a portal between worlds and the Mistress of Shadows entered her mind violently, shattering it into two pieces in the process. One personality, Saria, was shy and demur. The other personality, Alis, was coarse and acid-tongued. Mistress began to gather strength and had the Saria personality stay locked in Khemi where she worked at the Serpent's Head Inn and had the Alis personality go to Tarantia, where she was tasked with assembling the ingredients, components and mystical artifacts to widen the hole in the world that would allow Mistress to enter. Unfortunately for Mistress, Saria was befriended by Arwyne who herself having been possessed or cleansed of possession of some sort began to catch on to what was happening. Arwyne discovered a list of ingredients that Mistress had asked Saria to procure and taking a difficult journey to Sindel, she found that the ingredients let to a spell of "demonic reconstitution". Arwyne recognized the medallion was a key and told Saria that she would be sacrificed to complete the ritual to bring her mistress into the world. Mistress was biding her time, as the timing was crucial and she did not want Alis and Saria to combine personalities and thus ruin the process of entering the world. One day, in a panic, Saria had the impression that Mistress was going to take her to Tarantia to be sacrificed and wrote a hasty note to Arwyne, leaving it with a courier. Arwyne assembled a band to rescue her but instead bumped into Alis at the Sailor's Den. After the confrontation, Alis insisted she had never met them but became curious about the Serpent's Head Inn. Travelling back to Khemi, they re-entered the inn where memories started to flood Alis. She collapsed to the floor and the medallion began to glow with a bright white light engulfing her prone body. Out of the vortex of light appeared Mistress. She declared her intention of taking over the world but discovered that the transformation had been premature and that she was in a weakened form. She fled to the Blessed Caves where her servant had arranged for bodyguard just in case such an event should occur. A plucky band of adventurers followed Arwyne up to the Blessed Caves and after a confrontation they were all defeated by the body guards and Mistress. However, as Mistress gloated, Arwyne miraculously got up, dusted herself off and began to recite a demonic incantation from the medallion (which she had copied down from Saria earlier). Mistress, furious, told the guards to stab Arwyne but their swords had no effect. Mistress felt herself being weakened by the incantation and at the last line, crumbled into a pile of dust. The medallion then rolled to the ground where Arwyne picked it up, but Alisaria did not reappear.